Billionaires fall in line

The super PAC mega-donors who dragged out the GOP primary are getting behind the establishment, rather than continuing to back rogue candidates and causes — as some in the Republican Party feared.

Donors like Sheldon Adelson and Foster Friess, who gave millions to anti-establishment presidential primary campaigns, are starting to fall in line — promising to support Mitt Romney and cutting checks to groups fighting for congressional Republicans.

Story Continued Below

Casino mogul Adelson and his wife, Miriam, who donated more than $15 million to a super PAC supporting Newt Gingrich’s presidential campaign, gave $5 million to a super PAC linked to House Speaker John Boehner in February — according to newly released filings. And Adelson is hosting a fundraiser next Friday at one of his Las Vegas hotels for a Boehner umbrella group that works closely with the Republican National Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee, POLITICO has learned.

It’s all good news for Republicans, since the moves suggest big outside donors who supported anti-establishment candidates are prepared to keep playing big in the general — but this time, it’s to beat up Democrats instead of rival Republicans. And the moves come as various factions of the conservative base — some of which had shown signs they’d resist a Romney-led ticket — also are coming together to support him, too.

“With the Republican presidential primary winding down, donors are starting to look at the national battlefield and what it’s going to take to win the White House, keep the House and win the Senate,” said Dan Conston, a spokesman for the Congressional Leadership Fund, the Boehner-linked super PAC. It revealed Sunday that almost all of the $5.1 million it raised in the first three months of the year came from the Adelsons.

“If there’s a President Romney, donors want to see the best case scenario of a Speaker Boehner and a Senate Majority Leader [Mitch] McConnell, and if the president is somehow reelected, the last thing the country needs is a Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi and a Senate Majority Leader [Harry] Reid.”

Perhaps equally telling, there’s buzz in GOP finance circles that major donors may be starting to shy away from groups that challenge incumbents in contested GOP primaries.